Attending a Speech by Ira Berlin on Slavery -- Slavery Race

â€Å"Rethinking Slavery† – A Retrospect I recently attended the lecture of renowned historian Ira Berlin. Professor Berlin is a Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland. He has also been the recipient of many awards and acknowledgements over the last decade. In 2002, President Clinton appointed Professor Berlin to the advisory committee of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Professor Berlin was visiting the campus as a result of his recent appointment as a Mellon Distinguished Senior Fellow for the spring semester at the University of Illinois. He hosted an invitation-only conference at the Illini Union entitled â€Å"Transforming Slavery† on the day following his lecture. Usually when I am on my way to see a lecture, I am not exactly â€Å"anxious† to get there. I was, however, anticipating Professor Berlin’s lecture very much. I had a strong feeling that Professor Berlin was very well established and respected in his field. However, I became disappointed before the lecture even began. According to various sources I had seen around the University, Professor Berlin’s lecture was supposed to begin at 2:30. My plan was to have a conference at 12:30 with Professor Rogers, eat some lunch, and then head to the lecture at about 2:15. Luckily for me, during my 2 conference, I was informed that the lecture began at 3:30. After returning to my dorm, I researched the sources again. I found two sources that had the starting time of the lecture as 2:30, and two sources that had the starting time of the lecture as 3:30. So, needless to say, I was confused. ... ...of the audience to Professor Berlin’s lecture, I can only say that the reaction was mixed. I noticed that the scholars and professors on hand were captivated by Berlin’s presence and were very attentive. I even noticed that a professor in front of me literally tried to write every word Berlin spoke. As for the attitude of the rest in attendance, it was rather dull. It seemed that there were some people that seemed moderately interested in the speech, while others teetered on slumber. I must admit that I was one of the latter (even dosing off occasionally). It just seemed that, overall, the audience, I included, was slightly disappointed in the content and context of Professor Berlin’s lecture. Although there was a definite feeling that Professor Berlin was a very honored person, he failed to captivate most the audience, which was disappointing to say the least.